12-15-2003 10:52
The Blotter has something to tell you…and it might be a little difficult for you to hear: Not everyone likes you. In fact, there are people who actually dislike you. They don’t like the way you look, the way you talk, or the way you live your Second Life. You shouldn’t feel bad about this state of affairs; chances are that you don’t like them either. It's the natural order of things, really. Love and hate, yin and yang, cat people and dog people. Why is this on the Police Blotter’s agenda? It seems that many Residents of Second Life really want the Community Standards to require everyone in Second Life to love everyone else, and they’re upset that people say mean things in the Forums and issue Negative ratings as well as Positive ones. Well, that’s a stone-cold bummer, Mr. Natural, but you’ll just have to find a way to keep on truckn’. You and your fellow Residents are free to display your enmity for one another just as you are free to share your love -- a Negative rating is just one sign of a interesting and textured world containing a multitude of ideas and opinions.

The second item on the PB’s plate is the disposition of Cardova, Second Life’s relocated Sandbox. Specifically, the Blotter is more than a little annoyed by the fact that the Sandbox’s simple rules – Play nice, and clean-up your toys when you’re through – are being consistently ignored by those who want to treat Cardova like it’s Jessie South. When questioning some of these persistent wargamers in the Sandbox, the Blotter was informed that the designated Damage-on area – the aforementioned Jessie-- is unsuitable for war because it isn’t flat. Now this excuse just doesn’t wash. Did Hannibal complain about the mountains? No, he just got himself some elephants and hiked right over the Alps. A more compelling argument against wargaming in the Sandbox, however, might simply be that it isn’t allowed – Cardova is a SAFE AREA. Take a page from the annals of military history and learn to love the high-ground -- and keep your guns out of the Sandbox.

Statistics: Twenty complaints of harassment, intimidation, or vandalism, twelve complaints about assorted rule violations, nine instances of inappropriate content on a PG sim, and three complaints of an undisclosed nature. As a result of these complaints and our subsequent investigations, just six residents were suspended and eleven warnings were issued. Three cases are still pending.